Home Improvement for the Holidays

Get ready for guests and equip die-hard DIYers with these solutions

The first feast of the holidays is just a week away, marking the beginning of a season of gifting, hosting and last-minute projects around the house. Get ready for guests and ensure your shopping is done early with these great products, guaranteed to make holiday home improvements simpler and bring good cheer to the die-hard DIYers on your list.

Quick fixes for cold-weather sticks. Plunging temperatures and winter moisture can wreak havoc with hinges, hardware and winter gear, so be prepared for every tune-up with a sample six-pack of products from Liquid Wrench[1]. Without the powerful odor of typical lubricants, Liquid Wrench Penetrating Oil quickly loosens corroded bolts, nuts, hinges and frozen shafts and pulleys, and Liquid Wrench White Lithium Grease provides that same hardware with a heavy-duty grease coat that won’t freeze or melt. Use the Silicone Spray to prevent door gaskets from sticking and to protect your winter sports gear, and try the Dry Lubricant in sticking window tracks. The six-pack also includes a Chain Lubricant that’ll work great on your garage door opener and a Lubricating Oil that’ll take the squeaks out of garage door rollers. Look for this set and all Liquid Wrench products at Lowe’s[2] and other major retailers.

One-step cleaning for fine kitchen and bath finishes. Holiday house cleaning calls for quick solutions, and CLR offers three cleaning products that make kitchens and baths sparkle in no time at all. CLR Bath & Kitchen Cleaner cuts through tough, built-up scum and grime for a deep clean or a quick wipe-down before guests arrive. CLR Stone Cleaner works magic on such gourmet kitchen surfaces as granite, marble, Corian and tile, and the Stainless Steel Cleaner is a one-step cleaner and protector for stainless steel appliances, providing a streak-free shine with no residue. Stock up for your year-round cleaning needs at www.ShopCLR.com[3].

Gear for garage workshops. Give the gift of organization or get your own garage in order with coordinating components from Gladiator GarageWorks. The new 66.5-inch Bamboo Modular Workbench[4] provides a generous work surface using nature’s strongest and most renewable material, and is outfitted with heavy-duty tubular steel legs with stabilizing angle brackets and leveler legs that compensate for uneven garage floors. Two Ready-to-Assemble modules can be equipped with casters and rolled underneath the Bamboo Modular Workbench to keep project gear handy. Also consider gifting yourself or someone else with the Gladiator GearTrack Pack[5]. It can be installed in just 15 minutes and provides eight linear feet of storage for yard and garden tools. Shop for this secure, repositionable garage accessory and more at www.GladiatorGarageWorks.com[6].

Refreshing solutions for the shower. Revitalize any bath by installing Moen[7]’s Refresh Three-Way Shower Combination, which features both a multi-setting handheld showerhead and a nine-inch rainshower showerhead. The stylishly designed rainshower showerhead incorporates Moen’s self-pressurizing InvigoRain spray, channeling water through the showerhead with three times more spray power for an invigorating shower experience. The Refresh handheld showerhead offers seven settings and a spiral-patterned spray face that provides full-body coverage whether set to an “Invigorating” concentrated spray or a massaging rinse. The Refresh Three-Way Shower Combination includes a diverter that allows you to easily switch from the rainshower to the handheld, or to use both showerheads together. Available in Chrome finish at Bed Bath & Beyond[8].

Sixteen wrenches in one. Equip your favorite DIYer with a wrench for every need in one handy tool with the new Ratcheting ReadyWrench from Black & Decker[9]. An efficient space-saver in the toolbox, the ReadyWrench does the job of 16 sockets thanks to SureFit™ Technology, enabling two heads to rotate to fit nuts and bolts in the most popular standard (SAE) and metric (mm) sizes. It also ratchets, adding speed and convenience to projects of any scale. Look for the Ratcheting ReadyWrench at major hardware and home improvement retailers.